Category: Road Cars

Whatchamacallit? Käfer, Fusca, Beetle or Vocho? And is it Bus, Kombi or Pão-de-forma?

At first Volkswagen just called their two most popular models the Sedan and the Transporter. However, with the years that changed, especially when these models began to be exported and manufactured in other countries. And both of them received many different local nicknames. Interestingly, with time, and in some markets, VW adopted that nickname as the models’ official name. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t know of no other car with so many names. And I’m talking about official names, of course.

When I began to look into this, I was honestly surprised to see all the variations. Over here I listed a few of them, with a brief history of how it all started.

W-143 Beetlemania

In seven days, the whole world celebrates the International VW Beetle Day. On June 22nd, 1934, Ferdinand Porsche signed the contract to start the development of the “people’s car”. In 1995, spearheaded by the Brazilian Beetle Owners Group, the date was suggested as the international date to commemorate the iconic car. With support from other Volkswagen clubs, the idea caught on. Consequently, everywhere in the world enthusiasts celebrate the date as a “drive your Beetle to work day”. 

Therefore, starting this Friday, we will have the W-143 Beetlemania. From June 17 to the 24th, W-143 will be all about VW’s iconic bug. So prepare your air-cooled engines because we will have a beetle infestation around here 😁😁😁.